Discussion Topic

I started climbing much younger, in a gym, and I don't think it would be 'better' - just different. Probably you wouldn't have become as rad an alpinist if you devoted more days to bouldering, sport climbing, campus board workouts, sh#t you have to do if you want to climb hard plastic (which, if you're a kid in a gym, seems like a really, really cool idea).

Truth is that I am not an alpinist, and for sure far from rad. Mountaineer- more like it. Pulling hard and having better climbing technique would help me a lot though. But again this thread is about these amazing kids- my hat is off. Hope they enjoy it as much as they say they do!

To be honest watching kids climb etc makes me a bit jealous. I wish I started climbing at a younger age so that my technique now was much better. Although climbing for me DOES come down to having fun, I do also consider it a true art. Like dancers, the climbers with good technique are awesome to watch. It feels great when you figure out a move and make something very strenuous into a natural body movement- just by changing position of your body. At times I feel like a terrible dancer, and it sucks. So watching these kids (or other climbers with better technique) is quite motivational. Have no idea why some people have the need to put them down for the type of climbing they enjoy.

Why the little girl can climb much harder than you (and me) has little if anything to do with technique. Just strength-to-weight ratio, and tiny fingers for what to you are tiny holds (to her, they're jugs). The ability to hang on to small holds requires no special "technique."

I guess her technique is good, just like I imagine that Usain Bolt has at least pretty good sprinting technique. But if you think that's why he's faster than you are . . .

Help me solidify my thoughts. I realize that this will remain a remarkable feat regardless of my/our opinions-- it just crys out for deeper contemplation

Adult climbers have pondered this issue since the beginnings of rock climbing as a recreational sport (1880s):

"Let anyone of ordinary height take a friendly small boy of an active nature for practice on such a place [high stone wall at home . . .] and he will have the pleasure of seeing him easily climb up vertical places that are much more difficult, or probably impossible, for the taller man, even though he may be an expert mountaineer." - George Abraham in The Complete Mountaineer (1907)